Regios kept staring at the blurry figure in the distance. His emotions kept changing between tenderness, anger and remorse. However, there was extremely little he could do about it, the Fang Emperor had fallen and he had been imprisoned. Although Zhi was safe for the moment, there was no guarantee that it would be so for long. Since he didn’t have any guarantee, he had founded the Dragon Race with the single purpose of protecting Zhi.

He had gone through a lot of trouble to make it seem like Zhi was born from Fanghong and Xiaomei, he even made it so that he had an extremely strong Dragon Bloodline. All of this was done in order to hide Zhi from Adam. In the endless and boundless Primadorial Mist were numerous Planes that had been born from the Primadorial Mist. Usually unless a person travelled through the Primadorial Mist for countless Cycles, it would be very hard to reach another District of Planes.

So, this had been Regios’s only choice at that time but he had never guessed that Adam had been following him. Fortunately, his plans had not been all for naught as he had managed to hide Zhi before he was captured by Adam. All that was left was for now, was to wait for Zhi to slowly grow. After he had grown sufficiently strong enough, he would be able to take down Adam and at that time, Regios would tell him of everything. About his home, circumstances and origin, he would tell him of everything but he wouldn’t pressure Zhi into taking revenge.

His Master had told him before he left that Zhi was to pick his own path. If he wanted revenge, he was to help him, if he didn’t want it, Regios was not to pressure him into doing so. Regios understood that the Fang Emperor did not want Zhi to focus his sights on something as pointless as revenge. Even if you got revenge, it would not change anything. It would not change the past or bring back the people that had already died, however, after getting revenge, a person usually loses his purpose. Before getting revenge, it would be everything in his eyes but after he achieved it, he would not know what to do with his life any more.

As Regios kept gazing at the blurry figure, the number of figures around Zhi had fallen to only 30. Everyone else had already disappeared after passing on their knowledge to Zhi. Inside Zhi’s head, there was an enormous amount of information spinning around. Techniques, Arts, Trivia, Memories, everything was like a huge scramble. Zhi was doing his best to categorise them and at least generally divide everything by a system. However, just as he looked over the new information, more poured in before he could divide it. It was an endless cycle and Zhi’s head started hurting already from the information overload. However, after looking over one new piece of information after another, it suddenly stopped.

No more information came rushing to his head no matter how long Zhi waited. During the silence, Zhi did not wait around aimlessly but was working hard on categorizing the information he had already obtained. Inside his head was profound knowledge of countless arts, one more mysterious and profound than the other.

Also, countless insights to different Laws also entered his head, some conflicted each other while some complemented each other. After Zhi finally opened his eyes after sorting through all the information, he looked at Regios and said, “Why do I feel as though these Memories aren’t mine?” After sorting through everything, he felt that these were someone else’s memories for some reason. Even though Regios had said that they were memories of his previous lives, they felt very foreign for him.

Regios’s eyes flashed as he said, “Well, they are your memories from other lifetimes, they might seem like strangers because the current Realm you’re in differs from theirs, so you can’t relate to them yet.” Hearing this Zhi nodded but what he did not know was that Regios let out a breath of relief inside when he saw Zhi buy the explanation. Everything he had told to Zhi up until now was a lie.

However, he knew that even if Zhi heard the truth now, he would not believe it. So all he could to make sure that Zhi followed his own path without influencing him, was by keeping this a secret from him for now. Although Zhi accepted Regios’s explanation, there was something tugging at him.

He felt as though everything was currently an illusion, as though something crucial was still hidden from him. He could not figure out why he thought so but he felt like that for some reason. Zhi asked Regios, “How long have I been here and what happened outside?”

Regios answered in a gentle voice, “At the outside world, you are currently deep within Dragon Cross. The entire Island is on High Alert because of the Tribulation. Various Sect and Clans have started making moves against your Sect. Currently, of the many powers that had been so friendly to you before, only the Phoenix Clan has stayed by your side and are helping you out. Also the Tiger Emperor Clan and Black Tortoise Clan are also helping you from the shadows as they are currently making preparations for war. Since they aren’t prepared yet, they can’t openly help you.”

Hearing this Zhi’s eyebrows jumped as he asked, “How long have I been here?” Regios stayed quiet as he tried to avoid the question but Zhi’s voice grew colder as he asked, “Just how long have I been here?!” Finally, Regios just grit his teeth and said, “The time it took for you to merge with the memories of your past lives was 10 years.”

Hearing this, Zhi’s jaw dropped as he stared at Regios blankly. “Ten years?” After he asked this in a weak voice, Regios nodded. Zhi jumped to his feet and asked, “Why did you not tell me that any sooner? What is the situation outside?” Zhi had grown frantic already. He knew very well that none of the Sects or Clans had dared to move before because Zhi had been there to control the Formations of the Island. However, he had taken ten years to merge with the memories, so of course he was anxious to find out what had happened.

Regios looked at him with a complex gaze as he said, “I do not know whether you are going to be happy or not but you have been in a comatose cultivation state for the past ten years.” Zhi looked at him blankly as he asked in a shaky voice, “Comatose cultivation state?” Regios nodded his head and said, “Although your Soul and Consciousness are here, your body subconsciously rotated the Qi according to your Cultivation Art. You have already passed the Paragon Realm and entered the Primadorial God Realm.” Zhi truly felt his world shatter for a moment.

He had always pursued perfection. If he cultivated, he had to be thorough and do everything perfectly, this was the secret behind his abnormal strength. He thoroughly tempered his body and purified his Qi in each stage to lay a better foundation and to create a more solid cultivation over all. However, ever since the incident with the Black and White Emperor, he didn’t have a chance to perfectly temper and purify his body as he always rapidly advanced one time after another.

He made vow to himself that after he got out from here and stabilized the situation with Dragon Cross, he would not advance to the Origin Realm before he had fully tempered his body, no matter how many years it would take. Zhi looked at Regios and asked, “How do I leave here?”

Regios lowered his head as he said, “I can send you out anytime however, before you go, I will pass onto you the Ancestor Qualification.” Zhi anxiously nodded his head. He had no idea how bad the situation truly was so all he could do was quickly leave to start dealign with the endless amount of problems that had cropped up. Seeing hi nod his head like that, Regios just closed his eyes as a dragon like rune appeared before his giant head. The Rune seemed like a spec of dust compared to Regios’s giant head. When Regios opened his eyes, the rune floated before Zhi and embed it on his left arm, a bit lower that the shoulder. Seeing the Rune merge with him, Zhi didn’t submerge himself in the mysterious feeling as he quickly said, “Can you let me out now?” Seeing Zhi’s impatience Regios just shook his head a bit and closed his eyes. As he did, Zhi felt dizziness take over him as he was transported back.

After Zhi had disappeared from the black space, Regios looked at the distant figure again and said, “He truly is your son. No matter how he tries to deny it, he still cares about those that are under him more than his own benefit.” The blurry figures head seemed to nod to Regios’s words. Regios looked “up” and murmured, “I wonder what he will decide to do once he learns the truth.”

***

When Zhi came back to his senses, he immediately jumped up. The Healing Halls members who had been monitoring him were startled. They looked at Zhi in astonishment like they had seen a ghost. Before anyone could say anything, Zhi pulled out the Island Command Medallion and started pouring Qi into it.

When he started pouring Qi into it, he closed his eyes to better concentrate on the various Formations. The moment Zhi started pouring Qi in the Command Medallion, the various Formations on the Island lit up as bright lights started flashing around the Island. When everyone saw this, they were at first stupefied but when they saw the bright lights converging into various Formations, they all became ecstatic.

They knew that the only person who could control the Island Formations was Zhi and if they all started activating like this, it meant that Zhi had woken from his comatose state. To all of them, this was the greatest fortune they could come across currently because Zhi was the only person in their minds that could reverse their current situation. In truth, the situation was very bad and only 3 Ancient Clans stood by their side in this calamity while most of the Clans that had been oh-so-friendly before, now were practically hostile against them.

After Zhi had fallen to the comatose state, they truly understood how big his personal deterrence was. It didn’t even take a month for everyone to start acting against them when Zhi fell to his comatose state. Everyone, who had been in a good relationship with them before had all left their side, leaving only the Ancient Phoenix Clan to stand firmly by their side. What made them feel a bit better was that the Tiger Emperor Clan and the Black Tortoise Clan actually sent them reinforcements and promised them that when their preparations for an all out war were done, they would openly join their ranks.

No matter how this war ended, they would eternally be grateful for these three Clans for choosing their side. They didn’t care what reason they had to do so, what was important for them was that they offered them a helping hand in times of need. Even though the three Clans were helping Dragon Cross, their chances still weren’t great.

Many even started making preparations for the worst. However, Zhi awakening had wiped the pessimistic and negative feelings and premonitions everyone had away. In their eyes, Zhi had created one miracle after another, so since he had awakened, he will be able to create one again.

***

Zhi however had a very ugly face on at the moment. When he was activating the Defensive Formations of the Island, he was at the same time probing a bit farther away with Detection Formations. All around them were armies of soldiers under different banners.

Their cultivation levels weren’t as good as Dragon Cross’s but their numbers were over a hundred times bigger than Dragon Cross. In a large scale war like this, numbers played a huge role while the individual strength was very negligible unless your strength surpassed them by and entire Major Realm. Even then it would be extremely hard for them to take this kind of a number on by themselves.

As Zhi sat there with an ugly face, thinking and scrapping one plan after another, Ten figures appeared near Zhi. All of the Healing Hall personnel had left, leaving these eleven alone. They knew that they were the Pillars of them and the discussion what was going to happen now was going to be the one that will determine their destiny. They would not want to be the cause of the discussion derailing. Zhi woke up from his thoughts when Fanghong said, “You woke up.” Zhi looked around saw Fanghong, Long Ancestor, the Four Island Lords, the old Matriarch of the Phoenix Clan and two unfamiliar figures.

Zhi asked with a serious face, “What is the current situation?” Everyone present turned from relieved to serious as Fend said, “The situation is currently very bad. On our side are 3 Clans while the opposite side had accumulated over a hundred Sects and Clans.” When Zhi head the numbers difference, his mouth opened wide from shock as he asked, “How the hell can there be so many of them?”

This time Long Ancestor answered him saying, “It is because our resources are too vast and deep. Our Foundation is levels above them all, so there are enough Arts and Treasures to go around. Even though they have over a hundred Sects and Clans, they will all be able to get a piece out of this.” As the Long Ancestor said this, he just shook his head helplessly. Even though for them, the deep and vast Foundation was a good thing, at the same time it was a calamity to them.

When Zhi fell into a comatose state, all of them immediately bore their fangs seeing the opportunity. Since Zhi could not control the Formations to make them go into a full Defensive Mode, they could only try to keep the other people out as they could not count on the Formations completely stopping all of them.

One of the two unfamiliar figures opened his mouth, “Now that you have awakened, we can start thinking of a counter attack plan. Currently, we have only been on the reactive side but now we can take the initiative.” Zhi looked at the new addition and sized him up. He was in the Early Primadorial God Realm and he looked very buff with his white armour on. On the left side of his breast plate was the Emblem of a tiger holding a sword. His face was quite square and his white hair sowed that he was quite old. Zhi nodded to the man and then just said coldly, “Well, at least we now know who to trust.”

Everyone understood the hidden meaning behind those words and the three representatives of the three Clans let out an inward sigh of relief. They truly felt as though they had made the right choice choosing Dragon Cross’s side. They all understood that Zhi was someone who common sense did not apply to, so there was no telling on what he would do. Especially now that Zhi had reached the Primadorial God Realm. They honestly felt that under the Third Tribulation was no one who could take him on. They didn’t even dare to place their bets on weaker Origin Realm Experts.

Zhi felt around his body a bit and had already discovered that his body was weak. Usually, he would have a feeling as though his body was extremely strong but currently he felt that it was extremely frail. Zhi stood up under everyone’s curious gazes and took out his Naginata.. He gave it a few swings and the feeling of danger filled up everyone present. They had a hard time even following the speed of the Naginata but seeing the sour expression on Zhi’s face, they did not know what to make of the situation.

Finally, the Matriarch asked Zhi, “What do you plan on doing now?” Zhi just turned his head towards her with a sinister smile as he said, “Now even a Peak Primadorial God will be able to break through the defences here, I will go out to temper myself a bit. Luckily there are a lot of good practise dummies out there.” As he said so, a domineering aura spread out from him as he started walking out.

The man in white armour immediately exclaimed, “Are you insane? Even if it’s you, you won’t be able to take on all of them.” Zhi paused his steps and looked towards the man as he said with a serious face, “I never said that I would be able to take all of them on. When I suffer serious injuries or run out of Qi, I will retreat back to the Island. Rest up and then go out again. I will continue this cycle as many times as it is needed.” After saying so, he left the room prepared for him. With resolute steps he walked towards the edge of the Island. Whenever anyone saw him passing by, they all walked behind him as if following him to Hell. When Zhi reached the edge of the Island, He turned around and rose to the air.

He looked over all of the people present and cupped his hands towards them, “I thank all of you for holding the Fort while I was away. Now you can rest as I will take care of everything.” As he said so, he gave a deep bow to everyone. Seeing this, everyone felt their mind shake as they picked up the hints from Zhi’s words. He had basically told them all that there was going to be a bloody storm coming up now. They all looked at Zhi with a hint of veneration in their eyes as they saw him turn around and rush towards the enemies by himself.

No one knew who was the first one but after the first weapon was raised, all the other’s were as well as everyone present charged out following Zhi.